No. 3 Gauchos' Streak Snapped By Cal State Northridge

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. -
No. 3 UC Santa Barbara surpassed the school record for consecutive shutout minutes on Sunday afternoon as the Gauchos held Big West Conference foe Cal State Northridge at bay for 77 minutes, stretching their shutout streak to a school-record 542:10 minutes.

Unfortunately, the shutout streak and the Gauchos' five-game win streak were snapped in the 78th minute of the game at Matador Field when Robert Pate scored the lone goal of the game, carrying the Matadors to a 1-0 victory over the Gauchos.

The loss was the first in conference play for UCSB this season and drops the Gaucho record to 10-3-1 overall and 4-1-0 in Big West games. UCSB still holds onto the conference lead with 12 points, but is now tied with Cal Poly. Northridge improved to 7-5-1 overall and 2-2-0 in Big West play.

In the 78th minute, Rene Anguino took a corner kick from the near side. The ball reached Cameron Sims, who headed it from five yards out. Gaucho goalkeeper Sam Hayden saved the header, but he was unable to retain possession of the ball. Robert Pate collected the rebound and sent the ball to the lower left hand side of the goal for the score.

During the match, Northridge out-shot UCSB 18-9, marking the most shots allowed this season by the Gauchos and just the fourth time the team has been out-shot in 2009.

Sophomore Luis Silva led the Gauchos with four shots and one of their three that was on-goal. Northridge's Sims led all players with five shots, while Rafael Garcia had a match-high three on-goal.

The shutout and win streaks weren't the only broken on Sunday, the Gauchos also had a 16-game scoring streak halted. The last time UCSB was held scoreless was on Nov. 8, 2008 in a 0-0 tie with UC Davis.

"It was a disappointing day for us," said head coach Tim Vom Steeg. "For the first time this season we were unable to get anything going offensively."

Though the Gaucho offense faced rare struggles in the loss, the UCSB goalkeeping had a solid outing. Hayden, who had started and played every minute in every previous game this season, tallied a season-high tying six saves while playing just 53:55 of the game.

Hayden got his 14th start of the year and made four stops in the first half before he suffered a head injury and had to leave the game in the 26th minute. Sophomore Trond Helge Takset filled in for almost half of the game and made four stops before Hayden re-entered the game in the 62nd minute. Hayden went on to make two more saves during the second half.

Hayden and Takset combined to help set the new school record for consecutive shutout minutes in a season at 542:10 minutes. Due to the injury though, Hayden came up just 12:29 short of Dan Kennedy's school record of 518:29 consecutive shutout minutes by a single goalkeeper.

The Gauchos will continue Big West play next Saturday when they return home to host Cal State Fullerton at Meredith Field at Harder Stadium. First touch is scheduled for 7 pm.

To purchase tickets to the next men's soccer game, please call (805) 893-UCSB, visit the Ticket Office located inside the Intercollegiate Athletics building on campus or click here.